Thanks to the William C. Pomeroy Foundation and the researching and grant writing efforts of Bethlehem Historical Association Trustee Chris Philippo, Bethlehem has a new historic marker. Many thanks to the town's Highway Department for installing it at the corner of River Road and Halter Road in Glenmont.
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New Historical Marker installed in Bethlehem
Honors Judge Elisha Hurlbut
Elisha Powell Hurlbut was highly influential in the Woman Suffrage
movement. His persuasive essay “Rights of Woman” was published in 1841 when he was
a young attorney working in New York City.
In 1847 he was appointed Judge of New York Supreme Court. That same year
he married Catherine Van Vechten, a daughter Teunis Van Vechten and Catherine
Gansevoort, both prominent Albany families.
The couple would go on to have four children together.
Due to his ill health, Hurlbut and his family moved to the
country. By the 1860 U.S. Census they were living in Bethlehem, just outside of
Albany on the River Road. Inspired by the landscape of his property, he called
his estate “Glenmont on the Hudson” originating the name of the modern-day
Bethlehem hamlet of Glenmont.
While living at Glenmont, Hurlbut continued to think and write
about the issues of his day including civil rights, religion and phrenology. His
life long interest in Woman Suffrage is indicated with his tenure on New York’s
State Suffrage Committee from 1880-1882, some 40 years after his essay was
published.
Judge Elisha Powell Hurlbut died in 1889 and is buried at Albany
Rural Cemetery.
Chris Philippo of the Bethlehem Historical Association was
instrumental in researching Hurlbut’s life and career. Working with Bethlehem Town Historian Susan
Leath, the pair were able to identify the exact location of Hurlbut’s former
estate. Philippo, on behalf of BHA,
applied for to the William C. Pomeroy Foundation for historic marker grant in
connection with the National Votes for Women Trail. The grant was approved and the new marker was
recently installed at the foot of Halter Road, the former drive up to the
Hurlbut mansion. It is at the corner with River Road in Bethlehem.
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Read more about the Hurlbuts here:
https://bethlehemnyhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/our-towne-bethlehem-march-2021.html
Read more about the William C. Pomeroy Foundation here:
https://www.wgpfoundation.org
Read more about the National Votes for Women Trail here:
https://ncwhs.org/votes-for-women-trail/
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